A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

After a few days, Juxiang still didn't come back, and Guier became more suspicious.

She went to ask Liu, the housekeeper, if he knew where Juxiang's relatives were. Shanghai was so chaotic, and she was worried something might happen to her.

Butler Liu said, "I'm not sure. She just said she had an aunt or something who lived in the suburbs of Shanghai. She hadn't seen her in years."

Gui'er was even more unconvinced, because Juxiang said that she had fled to Jiangcheng and was sold to the Marshal's Mansion by her parents. They had already sold her off. How could the master let her go so easily to see a relative who didn't know where he lived? What if she didn't come back?

But it was hard to say anything, so I just smiled and said, "That's right, she hasn't seen her relatives in so many years, and it's only right for her to stay a few more days for the reunion."

There was no news from Song Xichen. Gui'er didn't know why, but she didn't want to stay in the villa. So, she either asked Tong Yujun to go out and play, or went to the bookstore to buy newspapers.

On this day, the villa suddenly became lively and every servant was busy. Upon asking, we found out that it was almost New Year's Eve and the Marshal was preparing to hold a banquet, so he asked for the last thorough cleaning before the New Year.

Every room was busy except Gui'er. The only servant, Juxiang, had asked for leave and no one arranged for another servant to do the job for her.

In fact, Gui'er has felt these days that the servants obviously don't take her seriously. Sometimes they deliberately whisper in front of her, saying that Miss Gui'er was also a servant before, and who would serve a servant?

Gui'er naturally didn't care. She came from the modern era and had no class concepts at all. She was just worried about what had happened to Juxiang. She had disappeared for no reason. Would it be safe for her to continue staying here?

If Sha Yanxiao were here, there wouldn't be those worries. But now Gui'er looked around and found that there was no one she could rely on, so she was like a frightened bird, trembling with fear all day long.

She went to find the eldest son Sha Yanyao and asked him when Sha Yanxiao would be back.

Sha Yanyao said, "The battle over there is coming to an end. We have won a great victory. My second brother is cleaning up the battlefield and arranging follow-up matters. My father is preparing a banquet to welcome my second brother and celebrate his victory."

Gui'er felt relieved after hearing this. If Sha Yanxiao had not come back, she had already prepared to run away.

Since there were no servants, Gui'er wanted to do the cleaning herself, and clean Sha Yanxiao's room as well. But when she went to find cleaning utensils like a broom and a bucket, the servants either pretended not to hear or said in a sarcastic tone, "Miss Gui'er, you don't have to work. When we're done, Butler Liu will arrange for someone to do it for you."

Guier smiled and went back to her room to pick up the washbasin in the room to get some water.

After sprinkling the water, it was time to sweep the floor, but there was still no broom. Guier went to the yard to look for it, thinking that maybe there was one in some corner that no one was using.

As I walked, I came to a pavilion against the wall in the yard. I saw a broomstick standing there next to a bush. I hurried over and wanted to pick it up, but I pulled it twice and couldn't lift it.

After pushing aside the grass, I found that the bamboo pole was inserted into a well on flat ground. I don’t know if something in the well got caught on it, so I couldn’t pull it up.

Gui'er felt very strange. How could there be a well here? It was so far away from the kitchen of the villa. Usually, no one came here to fetch water. So she pushed aside the grass and leaned over to look. She saw a person soaking in the well. He had already begun to become a giant. He was held up by the broom and did not float to the surface of the water.

Gui'er screamed in fright and rolled and crawled back several meters. The other people working in the yard heard it and looked over here.

Butler Liu came to Gui'er first and asked, "Miss, what's wrong?"

Gui'er pointed at the well and said tremblingly, "There's a person down there."

"Human, how can there be people? Where are they? Take me to see."

As Butler Liu spoke, he helped Gui'er up. Gui'er didn't want to face the corpse again, so she pointed at the well and said, "It's in there."

Butler Liu kept saying, "Where is it? I can't see it." While pushing Gui'er forward with force, Gui'er staggered and almost fell into the well. Fortunately, she changed her center of gravity in time and fell to the ground.

Butler Liu wanted to help her again, but she felt something was wrong. It seemed that Butler Liu wanted to push her into the well just now.

Gui'er quickly grabbed the weeds on the ground with her hands and shouted, "Hurry up, someone's dead!"

After shouting a few times, the servants who were still looking around heard it and came over here. Even the eldest master Sha Yanyao came out of the house limping on crutches.

When Sha Yanyao saw Butler Liu helping Gui'er, he suddenly shouted, "What's wrong with Butler Liu?"

Only then did Butler Liu let go of her hand, and Guier quickly stood up and walked a few steps away.

Sha Yanyao came up and asked, "What's wrong?"

Gui'er was like a frightened bird at this time, trusting no one. She stood a meter away from Sha Yanyao, pointed at the well and said, "There's a person in there, all swollen."

When the servants heard this, they were so frightened that they dared not go near. Sha Yanyao ordered the housekeeper Liu to find some young and strong men to pull the person out of the well.

The maids, the fifth concubine, the sixth concubine and their daughter were too frightened to come out. Gui'er was very scared and wanted to go into the house, but she always had a bad feeling in her heart, so she stood far away, clenched her fists and tried her best to suppress her pounding heart.

The two servants in charge of the salvage took the combined efforts to pull the man up. After pulling him up, they discovered that there was a thick hemp rope tied to his feet, and a stone as big as a cement pier was rolled on the other end of the rope. Everyone present was talking about it, and everyone was whispering that it was obvious that this man was forcibly pushed into the well and killed, but no one dared to say it out loud.

At this time, the servant who rescued the person walked up to Butler Liu and asked him what to do.

Butler Liu said, "What bad luck! The master is going to have a big banquet in a few days. How could something like this happen? Hurry up and find a corpse collector to take it away."

Gui'er was shocked. Shouldn't this obvious murder be reported to the police?

She turned to look at the others, and no one raised any objections.

Turning back to look, I found that the shoes she was wearing were the same as those worn by other female servants in the Marshal's Mansion, indicating that this person was from the Marshal's Mansion, but no one had been missing in the past two days.

No, Juxiang is missing.

Thinking of this, Gui'er felt more and more uneasy for some reason. She bravely took a few steps closer and saw clearly that the person was wearing a white shirt and black pants. There were a few scattered small flowers embroidered on the white cloth shirt with the same color thread. It was Juxiang's clothes, and this person was Juxiang.

Gui'er felt dizzy.

She staggered back, and Sha Yanyao reached out to help her, but Gui'er was so scared that she reflexively dodged.

Sha Yanyao said, "Sister, are you okay? You must have been frightened by something unclean. Go back to your room and get some rest."

Gui'er calmed down, forced a smile and said, "Okay, thank you, big brother."

Then he staggered quickly to the second floor, closed the door as soon as he entered his room, forced himself to calm down, listened at the door for a while, and after confirming that no one was outside, he hurriedly took out a pen and drew a thick X on the calendar.